Natalie's Birthday Party
by raspberry truffles
Summary: Reid and Luke host Natalie's 13th birthday party. This story is in the same verse as Luke and Reid Go to a Cheer Competition. You don't need to read that one for this to make sense.


Title: Reid and Luke Host Natalie's 13th Birthday Party

Pairing: Luke and Reid

Other Characters: Natalie, Megan, school friend's of Natalie's and Sally the hairdresser.

Summary: Lily was unavailable to host Natalie's birthday party so Luke stepped up and dragged Reid into this mess. This story takes place in the same verse as Luke and Reid Go to a Cheer Competition. You don't need to read the first one to make sense of this.

Disclaimer: These are not my characters they all belong to ATWT and its parent company(ies). All mistakes are mine.

Rating: PG

A/N: I'm Canadian and where I'm from the bags that you give out at the end of the party are called "goodie" bags. I'm not sure if this is the term used in the States or not. Sorry for any terminology confusion.

"Tell me again why we're here?" Reid inquired as he stared at the vast array of pink nail polish that had Luke's rapt attention.

"I told you," Luke sighed for the hundredth time. "We need to get stuff for the goodie bags."

"Why do we need goodie bags? I have never gotten a goodie bag in my life," Reid grumbled.

"It's a birthday party, Reid. When you host a birthday party each guest goes home with a goodie bag. I've already explained this to you," Luke paused. "At great length," he finished, rolling his eyes.

"Why do you have 13 bottles of nail polish, I thought that Natalie was only, and I use that term loosely, having 12 friends at the party."

"She is," Luke confirmed. "The 13th bottle is for Natalie."

"Natalie gets a goodie bag, at her own party?" Reid asked incredulously. "She's thanking herself for attending her own function? That's just messed up."

Luke sighed heavily. "Reid, just go with it. Everyone does it!"

"That doesn't make it right, you know."

"Why don't you go get yourself some lunch at the food court and I'll finish up here," Luke suggested.

Reid smiled widely. "That's the best idea you've had all day," he responded kissing Luke lightly on the lips.

"Finally, I can get this finished," Luke huffed to himself after Reid hurried off in search of food.

Saturday afternoon, Reid pulled up to the Lilypad and was surprised to see two limos parked in the driveway. "What on earth is that about," he wondered aloud, before walking up to the front door.

"Reid," Luke smiled weakly. "Thank God you're here. I need your help packing the limos before the girls arrive."

"What are you packing the limo's with?" Reid asked. "Is there some social event that we're getting out of because of birthday duty?" he inquired hopefully.

Luke looked puzzled. "The birthday party is the social event," he answered, as though that was completely obvious.

"What are you talking about? Aren't the girls just coming here for cake and ice-cream and to drop off presents?"

Luke gaped at Reid in utter disbelief. "Are you kidding me? This is Natalie's 13th birthday party. We have a whole itinerary. Cake and ice cream are on the list, but that is only one item," Luke exploded. "Geez! Were you raised by wolves?"

Reid rolled his eyes, but persevered. "What can I help you with?" he offered instead of the sarcastic retort he had at the ready.

"Okay," Luke began looking at his list. "The first thing I need you to do is grab the goodie bags. They are all together on my bed upstairs. Please place them in the bin and then load them into the trunk of one of the limos. After that please come back here and help me load the food," Luke finished with a worried look. "Never mind the last bit; I will load the snacks and the cakes."

"Cakes?" Reid inquired, perking up.

"Yes," Luke confirmed. "Grandma Emma always creates two cakes for each birthday, so that there are choices for the guests."

"That's very thoughtful of her," Reid replied, secretly hoping that he would get to sample each one. "Is there a chocolate and a white cake?" Reid wanted to know.

"What?" Luke asked, distractedly. "No, Natalie loves vanilla sponge cakes, so she insisted that each cake have that as a base. One is filled with strawberry mousse and iced with white chocolate mousse and garnished with fresh strawberries and piped whipped cream. The other is filled with white chocolate mousse with mini Oreo cookies folded into it and then iced with a vanilla buttercream icing and garnished with piped white chocolate mousse and mini Oreo cookies."

"YUM!" Reid salivated. "Do you think that she will create a cake for my birthday?"

"Yes Reid," Luke uttered, "but right now I need you to focus on Natalie's party. Hurry up; the girls will be here soon!"

"Alright, alright," Reid muttered, "I'll go and get the goodie bags, geez!"

Reid hurried upstairs and found that Luke's bed was covered with pretty (if you liked that sort of thing) pale pink bags filled with hot pink tissue paper and tied with white tulle ribbon, each adorned with a name tag that had been hand addressed in calligraphy. "Good grief," Reid muttered to himself, but he began carefully placing the bags into a large bin for easy transport. When he had finished loading the bags, he noticed a larger bag, that wasn't quite as girly as the others. He figured that had to be the one for Natalie so he packed it In with the others. When they were all packed he carried them outside and placed them in the trunk of the nearest limo.

With his tasks accomplished, Reid went to find Luke to see if he needed any help, hoping to sample some of the snacks. Instead he ran directly into Natalie, who was looking excited yet stressed.

"Hi Reid," she said throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "I'm so glad that you are coming to my party. It's going to be awesome!"

"Er… Happy Birthday, Natalie!" Reid said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, choosing to focus on the promised cake to add some sincerity to his tone. He truly liked Natalie, but he wasn't really looking forward to an entire afternoon with 13 year old girls.

"Can I ask you something, Reid?"

"Sure," Reid answered, nervously.

"Which bathing suit should I bring?" Natalie asked, after whipping two out of a bag that was at her feet.

"Why are you bringing a bathing suit?" Reid asked, worriedly. "Was I supposed to bring one?"

Natalie laughed at that. "Why would you bring a bathing suit? I need one because the girls and I are going swimming. That's the first activity on our itinerary. You and Luke are just going to chaperone," Natalie explained.

"Oh okay," Reid grumbled.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Which suit, the pink bandeau or the blue string bikini?" Natalie asked seriously.

"How should I know?" Reid asked incredulously.

"Oh my God, you're worse than Luke," she muttered disgustedly. "I'll just bring both," she finished, clearly dismissing Reid.

Reid then went to the kitchen in search of Luke… and snacks.

"Here," Luke said, thrusting Tupperware containers full of food at Reid. "Please help me pack the food into the limos."

"Sure," Reid sighed, but followed Luke out to the driveway.

Once the food was loaded, Luke turned to Reid. "Okay all we need now are the cakes. Thank God the trunks have a refrigerated section to keep the cakes fresh."

"Yes," Reid answered.

"After all, we still have to store all of the presents."

"Oh dear Lord," Reid sighed in exasperation.

Mercifully, Luke was too preoccupied to notice.

The two men loaded the cakes, just before Natalie's guests began to arrive.

When the girls had all arrived Luke quickly consulted his list and split the girls into the two limos. He then sent Reid with Natalie's group while he went with the others.

Fifteen minutes later they arrived at the pool. Natalie immediately took charge and ushered all of the girls into the change room.

"Luke, I will bring out all of the girls towels and shampoo for you to look after, okay? We will lock our clothes in the lockers, but I want to be able to shower, before we open them up, so that our clothes don't get soaked."

Luke nodded as Natalie led her entourage into the changing room.

"So, shall we go and get the snacks?" Reid asked hopefully.

"No, the limos have gone to the restaurant to drop off the cakes and they won't be back for two hours. That's how long the girls are going to swim for. We don't need the snacks now because they shouldn't really swim and eat. The snacks are for our next stop at the beauty parlour."

"Who said what now? We're going to a beauty parlour? Why would we do that?"

"Reid," Luke answered patiently. "The girls are going to get all dolled up before we all go out to dinner, and to do that we are taking them to a beauty parlour, okay? Unless you want do all the girls hair and make-up yourself," Luke teased.

"HAHAHA," Reid scowled.

"Well you know you're very talented at that sort of thing," Luke continued, smiling.

"Luke," Reid warned.

Luke leaned over and kissed Reid lovingly on the mouth. "Don't worry, I'll let you try out your other talents on me later tonight," he whispered seductively into Reid's ear.

"Why Mr. Snyder, do you have a naughty party planned for the two of us?"

"You'll have to wait and see," Luke answered, demurely.

Two hours later the girls were showered and changed into their street clothes, ready for part two of the party.

The limos were back and everyone piled into their respective cars and headed to the beauty salon.

"Sally's Salon, why am I getting such a bad feeling about this?" Reid asked Luke just before the two of them entered the establishment.

"I dunno," Luke answered, averting his eyes.

"Oh my God, this is the place where those cheer mom's said I should get a job," Reid remembered, horrified.

"Did they?" Luke asked, feigning innocence.

"Bloody hell, Luke," Reid exclaimed, glaring at him. "What have you done?"

"Come on you guys," Natalie urged the two men. "Sally's dying to meet you Reid, she's heard all about your precision eyeliner talents."

Reid glared harder at Luke, who was studiously looking at the ground as they entered the premises.

"Hi Luke," a middle aged blonde woman greeted Luke warmly, hugging him, and kissing his cheeks.

"Hi Sally," Luke replied, smiling.

"Is this Reid?" she asked, with more enthusiasm than Reid would have liked. "Come with me," she instructed grabbing his hand firmly.

Reid looked back at Luke begging for help, but Luke was still looking down.

"Now Natalie has insisted that you apply the eyeliner on all of the girls, she insists that you are the very best at it," Sally enthused, failing to recognize the abject horror that was clearly evident on Reid's face. "So I am starting with Natalie as she is the birthday girl, and when I'm done with her hair and other make-up, I want you to apply her eyeliner."

"Can't I just wait with Luke, until you're done? I'm sure that you are much better at make-up than I am."

"No Reid, you are the best," Natalie stated. "I wanted you to do all the make-up on all of us, but Luke thought that it would take too long. So we compromised, and agreed that you should do all of the eyeliner."

"Luke knew about this?" Reid asked incredulously.

"Hey," Natalie responded, her eyes starting to pool with unshed tears, and her lower lip starting to tremble as she pouted. "Don't you want to do it?"

"No," Reid started to say, but had to amend it as he looked into those big brown eyes, that were so much like Luke's. "Of course I want to do it, Natalie; I'm just surprised that Luke didn't tell me about it."

Natalie immediately smiled at Reid. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you. I know that you don't have a big family like we do, and I wanted to make sure that you felt included."

"Ah," Reid answered, dumb struck. Seeing Natalie's expectant face he quickly added a "thank you," that came out more as a question than a response.

"You're welcome!" Natalie beamed at him.

As Sally started in on Natalie's hair, Reid gently excused himself so that he could go and, uh , talk to Luke.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Reid demanded in a firm whisper.

"I didn't know how to tell you, and Natalie wanted it to be a surprise for you."

"Uh huh," Reid grunted. "You knew that I would have refused if you'd told me and that I wouldn't be able to disappoint Natalie."

"Well, uh yeah," Luke admitted.

"You owe me, Snyder," Reid said meaningfully.

"I always pay my debts," Luke assured him with a little smirk.

"You'd better," Reid glared, but his tone had softened.

"Reid," Sally called. "It's your turn."

"Great," Reid muttered, but turned and headed over to Natalie.

Natalie stood up and whispered instructions into Reid's ear. "I know that you will do a great job with everyone, but I want my eyes to be the most dramatic, okay?"

"I'll see what I can do," Reid whispered back.

Sally was watching Reid like a hawk and was a little surprised at the dexterity and precision he had while applying the eyeliner. Her sister had been right, Reid really could be a professional.

"Great job," Sally admired when he was done.

Reid simply nodded at the praise from Sally, but Natalie bounded up from her chair and wrapped Reid in a huge hug.

"Thank you so much," she gushed into his ear. "You've made my eyes really pop!"

"You're welcome," Reid replied, gently but firmly extricating himself from the hug.

All of the other girls were excited to have Reid apply their eyeliner as well. He did a good job with all of the girls, but he was careful to make sure that Natalie looked the best, though he would never admit that!

Two hours later, the snacks had been eaten, the presents had been opened and the girls all looked fantastic. The girls were excited for the next part of the party and happily got into their respective limousines and headed out for dinner. Reid was surprised when his limo pulled up at Metro.

"Are you sure this is our destination?" he asked the driver.

"Yes sir," he responded.

Reid just shook his head.

Minutes later Luke and his girls arrived at Metro.

"Luke, why are we here? The girls aren't even allowed in here?" Reid asked feeling concerned.

"Don't worry Reid," Luke assured him. "This is all part of my plan. Now it's imperative that Natalie go into the club first, so let me go in with her, and then have the other girls follow us, okay?"

"Okay," Reid asked, happy that he didn't have to go first. He didn't want to be the one who had to tell Natalie that her party would have to relocate.

Luke escorted Natalie into the club, which was dark. "Are you sure that they're expecting us?" Natalie asked, nervously.

Luke rolled his eyes. "You sound just like Reid!"

Natalie giggled. "You arranged this, right? You didn't leave this up to Mom, did you?"

"I organized this," Luke answered firmly and flicked on the lights.

"SURPRISE!" about one hundred kids cried out in unison.

Natalie was shocked as she looked out and saw that Metro was packed with kids from her school.

"Wha?...How…? Luke?" she gasped as she turned and hugged her brother tightly.

"Are you happy?" Luke asked, concerned.

Natalie pulled away from him and beamed up at him. "I'm ecstatic!"

"Good," Luke smiled back at her. "Now go and enjoy yourself."

Natalie led her friends over to the table that was set up in the centre of the room. This table was big enough to hold her and her twelve personal guests. She couldn't believe that Luke had gone to so much trouble for her. She had the greatest brother on the planet.

Luke smiled at his sister and was relieved that she was happy with his surprise.

"Pretty pleased with yourself, aren't you Snyder?" Reid asked coming up beside him.

"Yeah," Luke admitted, blushing slightly.

"Where are we eating? Your sister's table looks pretty full."

"We're going to be sitting up there in the VIP booth," Luke pointed to a spot that was upstairs.

"Geez, I didn't even know they had an upstairs. I thought it was just offices up there."

"That's cos you're not usually a VIP like me," Luke teased.

"Ah yes, we can't all be Richie Rich," Reid replied taking Luke's hand and following him upstairs.

As the two sat at their table Reid noticed that while they had privacy they also had an excellent view of the people down below.

"So how did you arrange all of this?" Reid asked, curious about how Luke had managed to pull this off, while still a tiny bit nervous that Jack was going to come and arrest them for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Luke smiled, "well I talked to Carly to see if she could find a way around the liquor license, which she did with Lucinda's help, then I made special invites for all of the people in Natalie's grade, plus the one above her. I made sure to include the fact that it was a surprise, and spoke to the parent's when they RSVP'd. I made sure that everyone knew that this was a secondary party and that they weren't to bring gifts. I just wanted to make sure that there were enough kids here so that they could dance without feeling embarrassed. Also I know that Natalie has a crush on a ninth grade boy named Matt. There are six Matt's and four Matthew's in that grade and I wanted to make sure that he was included. I tried to pry his last name out of Natalie, but she clammed up."

"What are you going to do about having enough cake for all of these people?" Reid wanted to know, worried that he wasn't going to get a piece at all.

"Relax," Luke responded with a slight eye roll. "You will get your cake. Emma's cakes are just for the girls and us; Teri has made cake for everyone else."

"Ooh, I wonder if I can get a slice of that cake too," Reid mused.

"I told Teri to set aside a piece for you," Luke laughed.

Reid leaned over and kissed Luke.

Five hours later the food was eaten, the cakes had been devoured and the

kids were tired, but happy. The parent's of the 'surprise' guests came and collected their kids and Natalie graciously thanked all of them for coming and being part of her celebration.

Finally it was just the original guests along with Luke and Reid.

"Well girls it's time to get this show on the road. Let's go back to the limos and head for home."

The girls nodded tiredly and they all left Metro. Luke thanked Carly for making the evening so special for Natalie and handed her a big cheque. As they got to the limo's Luke suddenly remembered the goodie bags.

"Reid can you grab the goodie bags from the trunk so that I can give them out before we drop the girls off?"

"Sure," Reid answered and quickly opened the appropriate trunk.

"Well I know that this one must be for you Natalie because it's different from all of the others," Reid stated handing it to her.

"No…Wait.." Luke exclaimed grabbing the bag away from Natalie, trying desperately not to let any of the contents spill.

Everyone stared at Luke as he blushed a deep scarlet colour.

"Is there a problem, Luke?" Reid asked sarcastically.

"Um…well, this bag isn't for Natalie," Luke said pointedly. "Hers is exactly like everyone else's and it has her name on it!"

"Well then who is that one for?" Natalie asked feigning innocence.

"Erm… no one," Luke said looking down.

"Oh my God, it's for Reid," Megan exclaimed. "I want to see what's inside."

"I'm sure that it's not for me," Reid said taking the bag away from Luke and securing it in the trunk, away from curious teenage girls. "Luke, I think that you had better start passing out those bags."

Once the bags had been handed out, the girls were too distracted by the contents to think about anything else. They quickly got into their respective limo's, and the drivers took them home, both limo's finally returning to the Lilypad.

Natalie insisted that Reid get out of the limo when they arrived at home so that she could hug him one last time to thank him for coming to her party and making it so special. Reid awkwardly hugged her back, wondering for the millionth time how he ever became connected to such a huggy family.

Natalie then went over and hugged Luke, thanking him again for such an incredible night. "I can't believe that you managed to get Matt to come," she squealed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"You're welcome, Nat," Luke smiled at his youngest sister. "I'm just glad that you had a good time."

"It was fantastic, I want you to be in charge of all my parties," she replied, happily.

Luke just laughed. "Well you'd better get inside, it's getting late."

"Aren't you coming in too, or are you having a sleepover with Reid?" she smirked.

"Luke is definitely sleeping with me," Reid answered.

"Have fun," she replied, smiling widely as her brother blushed crimson. "Good night," she said as she turned toward the house.

Luke and Reid waited to make sure that she got into the house safely before Luke dismissed one of the limo drivers with much thanks. After that he grabbed Reid's hand and led him into the other.

While Luke was talking to the driver, Reid had retrieved the mysterious goodie bag from the trunk. "So who exactly is this for?"

"You," Luke replied, "but I'm kind of hoping that you'll share!"

Reid looked inside the bag and saw an assortment of sex toys. He leaned over and kissed Luke lovingly. "Oh, I don't usually like to share, but I'll definitely make an exception for you," he whispered.

Luke shivered in anticipation. "By the way, I brought all the leftover cake!"


End file.
